Chinese law addresses AIDS for first time ever in legal amendments29/8/04 -- Agency France Presse

China's lawmakers have addressed the AIDS threat directly for
the first time ever in a sign the government hopes to curb the disease
before it becomes an epidemic. Amendments to the law on infectious diseases urge officials at all levels
to step up the control of AIDS and take measures to prevent the spread of
the disease, the Xinhua news agency reported. They were signed by President Hu Jintao after being passed by the national
legislature over the weekend, according to the agency. The amendments also emphasize the need to help areas that are too poor to
fund a healthcare system that effectively prevents diseases and treats
people already infected, the agency reported. "Lack of adequate funds has undermined contagious disease prevention and
control capabilities of organizations entrusted with the tasks," Vice
Minister of Health Gao Qiang was quoted as saying. "Due to the lack of money, some patients could not receive timely,
effective and formal treatment and became new sources of infection," he
said, according to the agency. The amended law also strengthens requirements imposed on blood donation
centers following a series of scandals in recent years in which people
were infected with HIV/AIDS after selling blood under highly unsanitary
conditions. The official number of HIV carriers in China is 840,000, a figure that has
been left unchanged for nearly a year and has probably grown steeply since
then. State-run media have warned that unless China takes urgent action it could
end up with 12 million HIV patients by 2010.

Secondary schools in China's capital, Beijing, will soon be required to provide children with compulsory HIV/AIDS education. And schools in other Chinese cities are set to follow suit, according to officials at the Ministry of Education. Beijing's municipal commission of education announced last week that the HIV/AIDS courses for secondary school students would begin this autumn. There will be four hours of HIV/AIDS-related education during each of the first three years of secondary education. Courses will cover the science of HIV/AIDS, how it spreads within populations, the social and economic threats of the disease, and information about effective disease prevention. Beijing's move follows recommendations by the education ministry that teaching on drug control and HIV/AIDS prevention should be strengthened during basic education. And on 9 May 2004, the State Council - China's cabinet - demanded that secondary schools across the country should add education on HIV/AIDS prevention to their normal courses. By the end of 2003, China had reported 840,000 HIV/AIDS carriers and patients. But researchers estimate that without effective control, that number will reach 10 million by 2010.

AIDS Prevention Targets High-Risk Activities 4/12/04 -- China Daily

China's Minister of Health recently announced intervention measures to
stem the spread of HIV/AIDS via prostitution and intravenous drug use, the
nation's two main routes of HIV transmission. The measures include free
condom distribution at entertainment venues and provision of clean
syringes or methadone treatment for IV drug users, according to Hao Yang,
director of the ministry's HIV/AIDS Division. The strategies have already
been undertaken in pilot trials in some regions over the past few years.
The central government vowed to support the measures. In a recently released document, the State Council urged health, public
security and other department officials to work more closely to prevent
the spread of AIDS. The document stressed for the first time that HIV/AIDS
prevention and control would be key indices for evaluating the
achievements of local officials.

Film buffs can pick up free condoms at the Broadband
International Cineplex in Shanghai's Times Square on Saturday in
honor of Valentine's Day. Many welcomed the gesture but some in
still-conservative China decried it. The Cineplex will make 3,000
condoms available and allow customers to help themselves. "We
believe in a developed city like Shanghai that condoms are no
longer a taboo for our customers," said an employee. "Providing
condoms supports a healthy and secured sex life and can arouse
awareness about safe sex and AIDS prevention.

AIDS Spreading in South China1/02/04 -- Agence France Presse

HIV/AIDS is
spreading in southern China, with some 110 of Guangdong
province's 122 cities and counties now reporting HIV patients.
The findings, disclosed at an AIDS prevention and control meeting
in the provincial capital Guangzhou on Wednesday, showed that
Guangdong now has an estimated 30,000 HIV cases. The number of
female patients has increased by 11.8 percent over the past year.
Because condom use is very low in Guangdong, HIV is widely found
among prostitutes there. Yao Zhibin, director of Guangdong's
health department, said the province will work to promote condom
use while establishing care and monitoring centers in an effort
to control the epidemic.

AIDS Research Center Opens in Beijing11/13/03 -- Xinhua News Agency

The Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and the Beijing
Union Medical College opened an AIDS research center Tuesday in
Beijing. Former President Bill Clinton, on hand for the event,
called the center's opening an important step in AIDS prevention,
control and research. Gao Quiang, executive vice minister of
public health, expressed hope that the center would work closely
with international research agencies. The academy and the college
have become crucial sites for the treatment of AIDS patients.
Professor Wang Aixia of the college diagnosed China's first AIDS
patient in 1985.

China's Executive Minister of Health Gao Giang announced
Thursday that the nation has 840,000 HIV/AIDS patients, and that
around 150,000 patients have died of the disease since 1985,
according to the state China News Service. The infections, Gao
said, were mostly contracted through unsanitary blood
transfusions in the central provinces of Anhui and Henan during
1993-1995.
"If we don't step up control efforts, then in a few years
the numbers will really surprise people," said Gao. The
minister's estimate represents .06 percent of China's population.
The comments were seen as the most authoritative estimate of
HIV/AIDS numbers in China by a leading official, in the absence
of an official report.
In 2001, the World Health Organization estimated that there
were 1 million people with HIV/AIDS in China. Chinese
nongovernmental AIDS awareness groups have estimated the number
of carriers exceeds 1 million in Henan and Anhui alone.
China invested about $300 million in revamping blood
transfusion stations throughout China starting in 1995, said Gao.

HIV-Positive Couple Make History in China4/08/03 -- Reuters

A HIV-positive couple has wed publicly for the first
time in China in a ceremony widely reported in state newspapers, a sign
more sufferers may be ready to tackle rampant discrimination.
Doctors and AIDS activists said the couple's openness in allowing the
press to cover their wedding would help fight discrimination and boost
AIDS prevention in China, which says it has around 1 million HIV
sufferers.
Cao Xueliang, 37, and his bride Wang Daiying, 34, traded vows at a wedding
banquet in their native town of Gongmin in the southwestern province of
Sichuan, guests said.
"The new couple and the guests were very happy, like any other normal
wedding," Xiao Wei, an aid worker who attended the festivities, told
Reuters by telephone. "The new couple said they would overcome all
difficulties together in the future."
Xiao, who works with a Sino-British AIDS prevention project active in
Gongmin, said more than 200 guests attended last Friday's wedding,
including some who are HIV-positive.
"Local villagers didn't mind sharing a meal with them," he said.
All 67 HIV patients in the town were infected as a result of illegal blood
selling in the central province of Henan in the early 1990s, the official
China Daily said on Monday.
Wang was infected with HIV by her former husband He Yong, who went to
Henan with Cao to sell their blood, it said. He died in September 2002,
leaving his wife and daughter.
The Sichuan newlyweds allowed state newspapers to splash color photographs
of themselves, both wearing striped shirts and corsages of red roses,
laughing and dining with guests at the bride's modest courtyard home.
"The newlyweds already decided before marriage they did not want to have
children," the Beijing Morning Post said in a half-page story accompanied
by legal and medical commentary.
Experts believe the true number of China's HIV sufferers is closer to 1.5
million, and the United Nations says the number could soar to 10 million
by 2010 if the government does not do more to contain the disease.
"Right now, most HIV-positive and AIDS patients are not open about their
status," said Han Ning, a doctor at Beijing's Ditan hospital.
"If they could learn from the new couple to be open about their personal
experiences, they would be better understood by the public," he said.
Sufferers cannot legally secure jobs in cities if they fail mandatory
health tests, while others in certain parts of China cannot marry if they
are infected with the virus, activists say.

AIDS Violence Flares in China3/08/03 -- Newsday

In the past few months, Chinese AIDS patients have been
beaten, arrested, harassed and denied life-saving medicines, say
prominent AIDS and human rights activists. The recent episodes
appear to defy hopes that arose during China's SARS crisis, when
both political leaders and opinion makers called for changes in
how the nation deals with public health issues, particularly HIV.
The aftermath of SARS had observers optimistic that China
would be more forthcoming about AIDS, including the rights of HIV
patients. "Many people thought things would get better after
SARS," said Wan Yan Hai, a Chinese AIDS dissident, in an
interview. "But it hasn't happened."
Instead, violence has flared in recent weeks, particularly
in China's Henan province, where an estimated 1 million peasants
became infected with HIV during the 1990s after selling their
blood to government-run clinics and then being transfused with
pooled, contaminated blood.
International organizations are stepping in, pleading with
the Chinese government to stop the Henan violence. Last week, a
coalition of leading HIV scientists and AIDS luminaries sent a
letter to China's Premier Wen Jiabao, charging, "The harassment
of people with HIV/AIDS and their advocates diminishes China's
ability to halt its AIDS epidemic."
All of this comes against a dramatically different
background of political and legal steps taken with the SARS
epidemic. Despite an official cover-up of the extent of SARS,
once "openness" became the watchword, many lost jobs or faced
demotion for blocking dissemination of accurate information.
As Chinese scientists research the origins of the SARS virus
in a well-funded campaign, HIV research occupies low prestige. A
Beijing official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the
HIV/AIDS workforce of China - a nation of 1.3 billion - is around
200 people. "I don't think our government will treat AIDS as it
did SARS," said Wan. "SARS attacked the capital city and affected
political stability."

Women from the Chinese mainland are less aware of HIV risks than Kong residents, particularly mother-to-child HIV transmission and safe sex, according to new
research from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The research, published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing, shows that only 37 per cent of pregnant women in Hong Kong think they are at risk of contracting HIV and only 38 per cent would take steps to protect themselves if they believed their partner was HIV positive. Based on interviews with 191 women attending the antenatal clinic of a regional
hospital in Hong Kong, the researchers discovered that although the women had fairly good general knowledge about
HIV/AIDS, they were less knowledgeable about safe sex and specific mother-to-child
HIV transmission. With the increasing volume of sex trade at the Hong Kong-China border, and the
common phenomenon of men in Hong Kong having a second wife on the Chinese
mainland, pregnant women in Hong Kong seemed to be unaware of their vulnerable
position in relation to contracting HIV infection.
About 60 per cent of the women believed they had no chance of contracting HIV,
while 37 per cent said they could be at risk because they, or their spouse, had had
multiple sexual partners, blood transfusions or contact with HIV carriers.
More than three-quarters believed that HIV screening should be carried out before
marriage (78.5 per cent) and 73 per cent would like to see screening before
pregnancy.
If HIV was suspected, 70 per cent of women said they would conduct screening with
their partner and 19 per cent would take the test on their own.
But only 38 per cent said they would ask their partner to use a condom, refuse to
have sex or separate and two per cent would keep quiet to avoid any conflict. If HIV
was confirmed, 24 per cent of women would have their pregnancy terminated.
The study also showed that women from the Chinese mainland were less informed
about HIV than Hong Kong residents and the level of a woman's knowledge about
mother-to-child HIV transmission increased with her education level.

HIV/AIDS in China Spreads Into the General Population30/04/03 -- Population Reference Bureau

China is at significant risk of a generalized HIV/AIDS epidemic as the
disease is spreading from relatively localized high-risk groups into the
mainstream population. By the end of 2002, the Chinese government had
documented 40,560 cases of HIV infection but estimated that 1 million
could be infected nationwide. Outside experts, including the U.S. National
Intelligence Council and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
(UNAIDS), estimated in 2001 that by 2010 there could be between 10 million
and 15 million infected Chinese.
According to writer Andrew Thompson, the Chinese government has identified
localized HIV/AIDS epidemics among three populations that account for most
infections in the country: intravenous drug users, who represent
approximately two-thirds of those infected; commercial sex workers; and
recipients of unsafe blood donations/transfusions.
The Chinese government has moved forward in its approach to HIV/AIDS, but
numerous problems are hindering government efforts. Poor baseline data
present a major problem for Chinese officials charged with assessing the
problem and allocating resources. China's HIV surveillance system focuses
on high-risk populations, especially intravenous drug users and commercial
sex workers. There are no surveillance sites that provide voluntary,
confidential testing services to the general public. This leads people to
believe that HIV/AIDS affects only marginalized populations and deprives
the Ministry of Health of the hard data needed to convince skeptics and
top leaders that HIV/AIDS poses a serious threat to the general
population.
China faces a serious HIV/AIDS epidemic. If the government does not act
quickly and decisively, warns Thompson, China risks becoming the country
with the largest number of people with HIV.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coupled with AIDS could
wipe out huge segments of the population in China's "AIDS
villages," Chinese and international health officials said
Wednesday. More than an estimated 1 million people in central
Henan province alone have contracted HIV from selling blood in
unsanitary collection stations beginning in the mid-1980s,
according to non-governmental organizations. Henan is worst hit,
but 22 other provinces, including SARS-affected Shanxi in the
north, also have AIDS villages.
"If SARS hits HIV areas, that will decimate all the people
who are HIV-positive right away," said Ray Yip, head of AIDS
prevention for UNICEF's China office.
"The death rate of SARS now is four percent, but if it gets
to AIDS villages, it could be at least 30 to 40 percent," said Hu
Jia, executive director of the Beijing-based AIDS prevention
group Aizhixing Institute of Health Education. Henan province has
reported six cases of SARS so far, and Shanxi has reported 141
cases, but even local doctors question those figures. "There are
many suspected cases they're not reporting," said Wu Guofeng, a
doctor at the Shangcai County People's Hospital.
Awareness of SARS and its dangers appears low among
villagers. Fearful of SARS, migrant workers from Henan's AIDS
villages and elsewhere in the province are beginning to return
home from major cities - possibly bringing SARS with them.
So far, no SARS cases have been reported in the AIDS
villages, but that does not mean there are no cases. Zhao Zhen, a
farmer in Shui county, said three people recently came back from
Guangdong with SARS symptoms but only one was isolated. "The
other two are staying home," Zhao said. "They don't want to go to
the hospital." That mentality is common in a population that has
suffered discrimination due to AIDS.
Farmers in AIDS villages are just now learning about SARS by
word of mouth, Hu said. "Many of the families have sold their TV
to pay for medicine for AIDS. Forget the radio. They can no
longer afford to pay for electricity," said Hu. "Some families
don't even have soap to wash hands."

Family planning associations throughout China will be asked
to do a better job of teaching the rural and migrant population
about safe sex to prevent HIV/AIDS, the state's China Daily said
Wednesday. Most rural branches of the China Family Planning
Association lack good education programs on reproductive health
and disease prevention, CFPA Chair Jiang Chunyun said.
CFPA, boasting over 1 million branches and more than 80
million members, is a vast network throughout urban and rural
China. Its primary task in the past has been to promote the
country's family planning policy, which generally restricts urban
couples to one child and rural couples to two if the first one is
a girl. But with a rise in HIV/AIDS cases, family planning
workers are now being asked to promote safe sex.
"People in rural areas, especially in the country's western
regions, are lacking basic knowledge on contraception, AIDS
prevention and family planning," Jiang said at a CFPA meeting
Tuesday. "Meanwhile, tens of thousands of rural people are
flowing into cities, most of whom concentrate in small and
medium-sized non-state enterprises, where few family planning
associations are set up," he said. Yang Kuifu, vice chair of the
association, pledged that in the future, CFPA would strive to
reach every household in every village and every work unit.
Experts estimate more than 8 million Chinese have STDs - far
larger than the official figure of 830,000 STD patients - and
that the figure is growing by almost 40 percent a year, the China
Daily reported recently.

China's State Administration of Industry and Commerce, whose
1989 regulations banned the advertisement of all products related
to sexual activity, announced on World AIDS Day it will begin
allowing condom ads next year. "The ban should have been lifted a
long time ago because condoms are the most effective tools not
only for avoiding pregnancy, but also protecting people and their
partners from sexually transmitted disease," An Bohua, a state
family planning official, told the China Daily.

A woman with HIV will marry an uninfected man in a ceremony
in Beijing on Sunday to mark World AIDS Day, according to the
Xinhua News Agency. It is the first time China will allow such a
union. The woman, 28, is a former drug addict who contracted HIV
from dirty needles. She has lived for four years with her fianc้.
The couple got approval to marry from officials in Guizhou, a
poor southern region known as a drug-smuggling route. Xinhua said
health officials and experts invited the couple to wed in the
capital to lift the profile of an HIV conference to be held
there.

China's young people are grossly unaware of how HIV is
spread, with many mistakenly believing that people can contract
the disease from mosquito bites, according to a survey published
Thursday. The study was conducted earlier this year by the
Beijing University Children and Young Adults Hygiene Research
Institute and UNICEF on 2,062 students from four middle schools
in China's capital.
Two-thirds of secondary school students surveyed in Beijing
did not know that mosquitoes do not transmit HIV, and half were
unaware that proper use of condoms can reduce the risk of
contracting AIDS, the Beijing Xinbao newspaper said. The study
also found that more than 40 percent of the teenagers did not
know HIV can be spread through homosexual intercourse. Three-
quarters of the students did not know that those infected with
HIV might not show any obvious signs of the illness.
An earlier study found that many students and parents wanted
to know more about AIDS, the report said. Parents in that study
requested that middle and high schools give students AIDS
prevention education. As a result of the study, Beijing's
education department has asked all secondary schools to begin
teaching AIDS awareness this autumn as part of the school
curriculum.
China has long denied it has a problem with HIV/AIDS and
identified drug users and homosexual as the only carriers of the
virus. But in September, in an unusually frank assessment, a top
Beijing health official warned that 10 million Chinese could be
infected by HIV by the end of the decade.

The Chinese city of Suzhou in Jiangsu province passed the
country's first law to protect the rights of people with AIDS,
state press reported Wednesday. AIDS patients and their families
will be guaranteed equal rights of employment, education and
health care, according to the Shanghai Morning Post. Employers
will also be denied access to AIDS patients' medical records. The
report did not specify if the measures would apply to people with
HIV. The news follows a speech Monday by UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan during his visit to China in which he warned that the
country is on the verge of a debilitating AIDS crisis if leaders
fail to take action.

China Says the Number of Its People Infected with AIDS Virus to Reach 1 Million by End of Year06/09/02 -- Associated Press

The number of people in China infected with HIV will soar to
1 million by the end of this year, but the rate of new infections
seems to be falling, a Health Ministry official said Friday.
Previously, China estimated 850,000 infections at the end of last
year, though health officials have confirmed only 30,736 cases.
Friday's announcement was the highest estimate given yet by the
Chinese government.
While the number of infected people jumped 58 percent from
2000 to 2001, the rate of increase this year dropped to 16.7
percent, said Qi Xiaoqiu, director general of the ministry's
Department of Disease Control. Qi gave no explanation for the
reported fall in the rate of new infections. But he noted
government efforts to supply low-cost treatment and clean up an
unsanitary blood-buying industry blamed for infecting thousands
of rural villagers. Nevertheless, he said, China could have as
many as 10 million people with HIV by 2010 "if we don't do our
jobs well."
Qi said the government figure on infected people was based
on information from local authorities and 148 research centers
nationwide run by the Health Ministry. Foreign health experts
have questioned China's official AIDS figures. They say that
among other failings, local officials are avoiding testing high-
risk people in order to meet targets for holding down the number
of reported cases.
Qi said government research showed that 68 percent of Chinese
with HIV became infected by sharing contaminated needles. In poor
rural areas, however, infection was mainly through unsanitary
blood-buying methods. He said such cases accounted for about 10
percent of infections. The government recently began treating
patients with a domestically produced version of AZT. Ten more
Chinese firms have applied for permission to make generic AIDS
drugs and might be producing them by the end of the year, Qi
said. Foreign pharmaceutical companies have cut the cost of drugs
sold in China from 130,000 yuan ($16,000) annually to about
30,000 yuan ($4,000), he said, still far more than most Chinese
could pay. China is trying to negotiate further discounts, he
said.

China Announces Jump in AIDS Cases3/10/02 -- Associated Press

The Chinese government announced a 17 percent
increase in the number of Chinese infected with HIV and sharply
raised its estimate of the disease's spread, saying up to 850,000
people could be infected, and 100,000 might have died. There are
30,736 people confirmed to be infected with HIV and 1,594 people
with AIDS, although the true number of AIDS cases could be as
high as 200,000, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The number
of confirmed cases was more than 17 percent above the figure
announced in mid-2001, while the estimate of people with the
virus was more than 40 percent higher than the previous official
estimate of 600,000.

The report noted that authorities believe China's official
AIDS statistics are far lower than the true figure because of
poor reporting by local health officials. "Experts believe that
over half of the 200,000 AIDS patients have lost their lives,"
Xinhua said. The report added to growing official candor in
recent months about the spread of the disease in China after
years of denying that it was a problem. The most dramatic
disclosure came in August, when the Health Ministry said the
number of confirmed cases had jumped 67 percent in the first half
of 2001.

Intravenous drug use accounted for 68 percent of infections,
while poor sanitation at companies that buy blood accounted for
9.7 percent, Xinhua said. That was the most specific official
estimate yet of people infected by China's blood-buying industry,
which is blamed for spreading the virus to thousands of poor,
rural villagers.

HIV/AIDS Research Center Operational in Shanghai9/26/01 --
Xinhua

A HIV/AIDS research center went into operation recently in
Shanghai. Specialists both from home and abroad are invited to
participate in the center's academic research efforts and
application of new technologies and methods to combat the
disease. Statistics show that Shanghai now has some 390 people
who are HIV-positive, including 48 AIDS patients.

600,000 in China Have AIDS Virus and Number Rising by
30 Percent6/26/01 --
Associated Press

More than 600,000 people in China are estimated to be
infected with HIV, and the number is increasing by 30 percent
annually, primarily because of an upsurge in infections among
intravenous drug users, China's health minister said Monday. The
government has launched a five-year plan to reduce the increase
from 30 percent to 10 percent annually, Zhang Wenkang said. The
plan calls for AIDS awareness in the sex education curriculum for
15-year-olds, prevention messages from leading actors, condom
vending machines, and education programs at all leadership
levels.

Efforts to fight the AIDS epidemic in China are coming
largely in the form of bills limiting the rights of HIV-infected
individuals--a situation that has doctors and activists
concerned. The fear is that the new measures could increase
discrimination against people with HIV or AIDS; discourage
individuals from getting tested for HIV; and play on the belief
that AIDS can be eliminated by punishing those infected, rather
than informing the public. A law in Beijing City, for example,
stipulates that the bodies of people who died from HIV or AIDS
must be cremated immediately and not moved out of the city. In
Hebei Province, the law states that "those with sexually
transmitted diseases who have not been cured cannot join the
military, enter school, recruit workers or get married, cannot
obtain permission to have a child, cannot work in child care,
food-related, or service industries, etc., and those already in
those fields must be transferred." Recent government estimates
indicate that China could have 10 million cases of HIV infection
by 2010, up from 500,000 now, unless aggressive measures are
taken. Experts note that because the country is at a relatively
early stage with the disease, such efforts could be quite
successful.

China Admits Having More Than 22,000 HIV Cases02/26/01 --
Reuters

There were 22,517 known HIV patients in China as of year-end
2000, but a new report indicates that the actual number could be
substantially higher. State television quoted experts from the
health ministry as saying the country could have over 600,000
cases of HIV infection. Unless aggressive measures are taken,
the United Nations has predicted that China could have at least
10 million cases of HIV/AIDS by 2010. According to the
television report, about 70 percent of China's HIV cases are
among drug users, two-thirds live in rural communities, and
nearly 90 percent are between the ages of 20 and 50.

Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in China, has adopted a
new legislature that directly effects people who are
HIV-positive. The recent Chengdu City AIDS Prevention and
Management Regulation, slated to begin in May, will ban HIV
patients and people who have tested positive for the virus to
marry. In addition, the new law requires police to test all
arrestees of high-risks groups for HIV and those that test
positive must be incarcerated separately from the others. The
new law also mandates HIV testing for Chinese citizens who have
been residing abroad for more than one year, and furthermore
encourages HIV-positive women who become pregnant to have an
abortion if treatment for the prevention of transmission of HIV
to the infant is not available. The strict new legislature has created a public stir.

A new report suggests that despite China's efforts to end
them, prostitution and drug abuse are the primary modes of HIV
transmission in the country. According to Dr. Ai-xia Wang of
Peking Union Medical College Hospital in Beijing, who presented
her findings at the Seventh Western Pacific Conference on
Chemotherapy and Infectious Diseases in Hong Kong, condoms are
widely used in China; however, they are mostly promoted for
family planning, instead of for the prevention of sexually
transmitted infections. A separate report estimated that the
actual number of HIV infections in China is up to 25 times higher
than the official 20,711 cases reported. The report predicted
that there might be 10 million HIV cases in China by 2010.

A new report from the Chinese Ministry of Health and the People's
University of China indicates that only 3.8 percent of Chinese are aware of how HIV is transmitted. According to the Guangming Daily, the survey--which involved more than 3,800 people between
the ages of 20 and 64--found that more than 50 percent of
respondents thought they could become infected if they used
chopsticks and bowls that an AIDS patient had used. Many
respondents also cited sneezing and hand-shaking as possible
modes of transmission, and about 45 percent thought that using a
condom would not help prevent HIV infection. Conservative
attitudes have made promoting sex education difficult in China,
and advertising condoms is thought to encourage promiscuity.

Number of Chinese HIV Carriers Up 37 Percent11/01/00 --
Reuters

As of the end of September, China had recorded 20,711 cases
of HIV infection--a 37 percent increase compared to the same time
last year. The Xinhua news agency, quoting the health ministry,
said that most of the new HIV infections were among people
between the ages of 20 and 29, with injection drug users
accounting for 72 percent of cases. Chinese experts in the state
media estimate that the actual number of HIV infections is much
higher, about 500,000 throughout the country. Furthermore,
according to United Nations estimates, unless aggressive actions
are taken, there will be 10 million HIV cases in China by 2010.

In Rural China, a Steep Price of Poverty: Dying of AIDS10/28/00 -- New York Times

Small, rural towns in central China are experiencing an
unreported epidemic of AIDS, with HIV rates of nearly 20 percent
in some areas, according to covert research. Chinese officials
deny there is a problem, however, and outside researchers are not
allowed to study the topic. The high incidence is due to farmers
selling their blood to people called blood heads, who reuse
contaminated needles to collect the blood. Adding to the threat
is the fact that the donated blood is pooled and, after the
needed elements are taken out, the rest is returned to donors.
One woman, Dr. Gao Yaojie, a 76-year-old retired physician, is
working to educate the farmers and discourage women from selling
their blood. Endless blood shortages in hospitals and a lack of
donors has led to the blood selling problem. Poverty has also
led many people to sell their blood--some of whom try to do it
twice a day, a local official claimed in an unpublished report.

A hotel in China's southwestern Sichuan Province has become
the first in the country to provide condoms in its rooms, a
controversial move done to encourage HIV prevention. While other
hotels in the region have said they do not plan to follow suit,
an official at the Chengdu Technological Instruction Institute
for Family Planning has voiced his support for the New Century
Hotel's plan, particularly if it helps prevent HIV. Sichuan
Province has the fifth highest rate of HIV and AIDS in China,
with injection drug use and sexual contact the primary means of
transmission. Official statistics indicate there are more than
400,000 HIV cases in China, although some experts claim the
actual number is much higher.

The Shanghai Daily reported that the number of AIDS patients in
China increased 69 percent in 1999 from the previous year, with
4,677 new cases of HIV. The report noted there were over 17,000
confirmed cases of HIV or AIDS by year-end 1999, including 647
cases of AIDS. Dai Zhicheng of the Chinese Association of AIDS
Prevention and Control asserted that "the figure has been
rocketing for five years, and rampant sexually transmitted
diseases and tuberculosis may make the situation worse."

China's Yangcheng Evening News reported Friday that the number of HIV-infected people in the country has passed 400,000. The paper, citing Health Ministry sources, said that many of the patients are drug addicts living in rural areas, and the number
of sexually transmitted diseases is also on the rise. A total of 83 percent of the HIV cases are among men, with more than 50 percent between the ages of 20 and 30.

China Slaps Ban on its First Condom Ad12/02/99 -- Reuters

China has banned its first national condom advertisement two days
after its premiere to mark World AIDS Day. The ad was illegally
promoting sex products, according to the government. The
conservative nature in China and the ban further promote silence
regarding AIDS. Health experts, however, fear the number of HIV
infections from sexual contact will double in two years in China,
indicating the need for such a campaign.

Condom Vending Machines a Hit in China9/9/98 -- Reuters

According to the China Daily, the country's first condom vending machines in the southern town of Shenzhen have been so successful that machines will be placed in other cities. In the first month of operation, each of the 50 machines sold 2,000 to 3,000 condoms at 12 cents each. The paper reported that sales have been spurred by the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Prostitution is widespread in Shenzhen, and last week the China Daily reported that 21 people individuals in the town are HIV positive.

AIDS/HIV CASES TOTAL 9,970 AT END OF MARCH20/5/98 -- AFP

China will set up a national centre this year to fight against the spread of AIDS. The National Centre for AIDS will be in charge of surveillance, epidemiological research, and development of vaccines and drugs and will be located in the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine. "There is an urgent need for such an institute because the AIDS epidemic is on the verge of an outbreak in China," said Shao Yiming, director of the National AIDS Reference Laboratory which was established in 1996. The Ministry of Health announced at the end of March that it had detected 9,970 HIV/AIDS, but warned that the actual figure may be in excess of 200,000.

China Daily's Business Weekly reports that Chinese
authorities are planning to launch contraceptive specialization
stores in order to relieve the embarrassment associated with
buying condoms felt by some individuals at local department
stores. Currently, department stores are the primary retailer of
condoms, contraceptive pills, and creams, but regional taboos
over the public discussion of sex deters a number of potential
customers. The stores--which would be launched this year in the
provincial capitals--would be licensed by the State Family
Planning Commission, training staff and providing suitable
facilities for government-approved contraceptives. The central
government plans to boost spending on contraceptives to more than
$36 million in 1998.

AIDS Spreads in South China's Guangdong Province
Jan 31, 1997

A 25 percent increase in HIV infections was reported in China's Guangdong province in 1996, according to the Xinhua News Agency. Last year, 54 HIV infections were reported in the province, including six that had progressed to AIDS. Sexually transmitted diseases were also reportedly on the rise. -- Rueters